Deep, Dark, Dangerous
by SilverandRed
Summary: Sequel to Parent Love! Chiro gets turned into a human toddler. When Sissy arrives, she's bad influence on Chiro and plans to lead him to death one step at a time. Full summary inside.
1. Nightmares bout Shuggazoom Lake

Skater: Hi!

Chiro: Sequel? Seriously?

Skater: Yep, sequel to Parent Love! Please review!

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**Antauri's POV**

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**Summary:**

**When Chiro becomes a human toddler, about five years old, a mysterious girl named Sissy appears. She keeps on talking bout the history in Shuggazoom lake, and she plans to lead Chiro to death one step at a time. Antauri has to save him in time… or will Chiro die a horrible death?**

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They say that people drown there every year. There was the lake and the Bungalow beside it. Chiro's parents used to own it, but now, they're gone so it is now the Chosen One's. He never went there, he never even mentioned it. The citizens of Shuggazoom would play there every year, but one by one, the lake would claim their lives. It was as if it had a will on its own. It was almost… _alive. _The crystal clear waters would look so innocent, but during nighttime, strange things would start to happen. Some say that they could hear a girl screaming and shouting, some say they could see someone walk out of the water. Others say that the water would suddenly become still and calm, only to allow a girl to walk out of it. Then it'll start to move around viciously. The girl was a monster, according to some people.

"ANTAURI! ANTAURI!"

The sound of Chiro's voice awoke me from my slumber. He ran into my room, tripping over a rock.

"Antauri! T-t-the-,"

I hushed him, and helped him up. He was crying badly. His whole body was shaking uncontrollably and his shirt was soaked with both sweat and tears.

"Calm down, Chi." I tried to console him. "What's wrong?"

"The b-bones! They walked out of the lake, then… then they chased me… and I wasn't fast enough, so they pulled me down into the lake with them! T-they tried to drown me! Then there was this girl laughing, and then she pulled me down with her… and she had long hair and she laughed underwater and she tried to kill me with a knife in the water! Then her creepy laugh scared me, so I tried to swim up, and when I finally swam up, she was on land instead of the water! She jumped on me, and the bones… the bones… they were all grinning and then I woke up!" He screamed.

I frowned deeply. This was the third time that Chiro got the same nightmare since he got transformed.

"I'm scared, Antauri!" the boy hugged me while sobbing. "The bones came out of the water! They're coming for me! And that's not all! Come to look in my room!"

I walked out, with Chiro following behind me closely. Once we opened the door, I had a shock of my life.

"You see, daddy? She came to my room! She tried to murder me!" the boy cried. "I don't want to get taken by her! I want to stay here with you and mommy and others! I want her to go away!"

I observed the words that were written on the wall with red-brown ink… or should I say… blood?

'_Chiro, I'm coming to get you.'_

"And then I found that my arm was wounded and I saw the gash," he pulled up his sleeve to show me. "She cut me! The girl! She's coming for me! She wants to take me away! I don't wanna go anywhere with her! She's a monster, daddy! She's a monster!"

"Chiro," I kneeled down so I was as short as him. "She won't get you, I promise. We'll protect you with our lives. Don't be afraid. I'm here for you."

Wiping away his tears, Chiro sniffled a few times. His eyes were puffy and red.

"I don't wanna go to sleep! She'll come and I won't ever wake up!" the boy screamed.

"What's with the commotion?" Sprx asked, opening up the door. He rubbed his eyes sleepily. "It's three in the morning."

"Sprx, I need you to-," I said, and then paused. "Where's the writing?"

Chiro turned around and gasped.

"She's coming sooner than I thought!" he broke into tears again. "Antauri, what am I going to do?"

I hugged him. He hugged back, still crying.

"Chiro, we won't let her take you," I said, my hands patting his back gently.

"Call me of ya need me. I'm going back to bed, and kid, try not to worry too much." The red monkey winked at Chiro before walking off.

"Will you sleep with me, just for tonight?" the boy pleaded.

I smiled and nodded my head. Returning my smile with a forced grin, he climbed onto bed and closed his eyes.


	2. Dream come true? More like nightmare!

Skater: Sorry for the wait but Prelim exams are really important! I hadta study and this chapter will not be long, but it won't be too short either. Please review!

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Antauri's POV

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I watched him as his chest rise up and down at a steady rhythm. He seemed to be sleeping peacefully for the time being. The nightmares about the girl were getting more disturbing each night. It's always the same- the girl with her army of bones trying to drown him. Sometimes, I wonder if Mandarin was related to the girl, if he was the one tormenting Chiro. The day he turned Chiro into a toddler had aroused the suspicion of the team. He had already turned their leader into a baby once; he wouldn't do it again, unless he is really that stupid to think that the same trick would work on them twice. What did he plan to do to the boy? The screams of pain when Chiro got shot with the gun echoed in my head again and again like a movie being replayed.

_Flashback_

_It was a day that was meant to be perfect. Citizens of Shuggazoom, as usual, laughed, talked and chatted happily to one another, totally unaware of the danger. They were so absorbed in their activities that they didn't notice the magnolia white clouds were beginning to turn crimson red. If anybody did see it, they just thought that it was acid rain. The only thing that attracted their attention was a shabby old man who was wandering around in the sewers, looking for food cos he had no job, no money and saddest of all, no friends. He only had a sign with him and when he began to climb out of the sewers, he was, of course, looking up. That's when he saw the blood-colored clouds. He stared at them and they stared back with the fiercest glare ever._

"_The end!" he screamed, leaping out of the sewers. "It's the end! We're all going to die!"_

_That was when a guy with the toy penguin heard the guy that was running around the city and he never went to college. He clutched his toy penguin protectively, running around the city, shouting and yelling, "Run for your lives! SK is about to attack! Call the hyper force!"_

_Other people heard him and they too began to scream, shouting Chiro's name._

"_CHIRO! CHIRO, we're in TROUBLE!"_

_That was when the super robot stirred to life, taking a step carefully each time it moved._

"_Err, guys… there isn't really formless or anything, so let's go into vehicle mode," Otto said._

"_Good idea," Chiro agreed. _

_Soon, after scouring the city with any signs of threats, Chiro started to think that it was a false alarm. Then, Mandarin made his grand appearance to the city, the red clouds still looming overhead. The orange monkey's pupils looked as red, only redder, of that was even possible. _

"_Greetings, my brothers," he said. _

"_You're not part of our family anymore," Sprx and Nova growled in unison, glaring at the primate that stood before them._

"_Family? Oh, how pathetically cute." Mandarin told them. _

_Chiro ran out of the torso tank, followed by us. _

"_What do you want, Mandarin?" He asked in a tone that could send chills down a human's spine. _

"_Your… power primate, of course. A typical answer to a typical question." He replied._

_Getting angry, the teen dashed for Mandarin._

"_Lightning kic-," _

_Before he could finish, Mandarin pulled the trigger of a gun that I didn't even notice that it was with him._

"_Chiro!" We shouted._

_Too late. The scream then reached my ears. The full of agony, pain and tortured scream. That's it, I told myself. I've heard that scream way too many times! Mandarin is gonna pay for causing my son pain!_

"_Claw disruptor!"_

_The orange monkey got slashed in the torso by me, and then hit by Nova with her 'Sting Ring' in the back. Groaning a little while trying to regain balance, he smirked. Somehow, it made me even angrier. _

"_Till we meet again, hyper force." He bid us farewell in a dark sort of way._

_Then the primate disappeared. Remaining calm, I rushed to where Chiro is. Before I could reach there, a cry filled the air. The toddler sort of cry, the sort of cry that would drive adults insane if they listen to it for too long. I saw a toddler with a nasty bruise on his arm. Picking him up slowly and gently, he stopped crying and sniffed._

"_He's soooooooo cute!" Otto screamed. "I wanna hug him!"_

_Before Otto could take Chiro, Nova said that we would have to turn Chiro back to normal, or heal the bruise on his arm, at least._

"_No hugging," she said sternly. _

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The sound of crying startled me again. I looked at Chiro and he screamed and yelled again for the second time.

"MAKE HER GO AWAY, ANTAURI! MAKE HER LEAVE ME ALONE!" he shouted.

"Chiro," I whispered. "Did you have another nightmare?"

"NO! SHE CAME THIS TIME, SHE REALLY DID!" he wailed.

Puzzled, I turned on the light. No one was here except me and Chiro.

"I'm not going back to sleep! She's gonna get me of I do!" the kid bawled.

Gently, I hugged him. He kept quiet immediately, for some reason. Folding his arms, he glared at his bed.

"Stupid sleep," he mumbled. "I dislike sleep. She always comes back. And I feel cold…" he added in a soft voice. "Can you keep hugging me, daddy? Cos when you do, I always feel warm."

I obeyed and smiled at him and hugged him, longer this time.

"Every night when I have the same dream after I wake up, I feel so cold. But when you're here or hugging me, the cold just goes away," he whispered. "Thanks, daddy."

The sun slowly inched its way up to the sky. That was when everything changed for me. That was when Sissy appeared.


	3. The torn picture

Skater: I'll get straight to the point.

Chiro: Please review!

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At first sight, I could say that Sissy was an ordinary girl. She looked like every other girl, so innocent and sweet, staring up at you with her big, dark eyes.

"Hello," she greeted, smiling. "Can I see Chiro? Please?"

The sound of the boy's footsteps was soon to be heard by both of us. He came running towards me, holding a storybook entitled' Little Lonely Teddy Bear'. Sissy stared at him with curious orbs, slowly nibbling on her thumb thoughtfully.

"Hi! I'm new here in Shuggazoom. Came yesterday. Is Chiro here?"

My son hid behind me, shivering slightly despite the scorching heat from the sun.

"W-who are you?" he asked, clutching his storybook until his knuckles were white.

"You are Suggazoom's… great protector?" Sissy replied, a hint of disappointment in her voice.

"W-who are you?"

"I'm Sissy," she introduced herself. "I was wondering if anyone could show me around."

Chiro thought for a moment and was now trying hard to study Sissy's appearance: Her dark hair, her crystal blue eyes. What scared me the most was her smile. It might seem normal to any other average human, but there was something weird about her. If only I knew what it was earlier, I could have stopped Sissy in time.

"There's a new mansion that was built one year ago," the girl explained, eyeing me. "Can I talk to you for a moment?"

I nodded but Chiro grabbed my arm. He started to pull me back in vain.

"Daddy," he whimpered. "Don't go and leave me alone."

"We have to talk about this in private," Sissy whispered to me.

I thought for a moment and watched Sissy continue nibble on her thumb.

"Chiro, go find Otto," I said, smiling at him. "He says that he's going to take you to the toy store."

Elated, the boy rushed off, dropping the storybook in the process, but he didn't seem to mind. Sissy studied the book carefully and picked it up, flipping through the pages aimlessly.

"Interesting…" she said, as if in a trance. Somehow, one way or another, the book seemed to mesmerize her. "Does Chiro read this?"

"He loves it," I replied.

Sissy nodded and out it down on the chair beside her. She sat down on the floor, cross legged, twirling a stray strand of hair.

"Okay," she said. "I'm ten this year and came here for a reason."

"To explore Shuggazoom?"

"No, it's much more important than that. The mansion I mentioned just now. It belongs to Chiro's parents. Now that they're dead, Chiro is the new owner of it," she paused, phrasing her sentence very carefully. I let the words sink it.

"He needs to stay there," the girl stated.

"Why?"

"By law. No worries, it's only for the summer."

"But we signed a contract-,"

"Contracts are useless stuff. There was a new law made in Shuggazoom last week. Every human needs to return to their house that they inherited from their parents for at least one hundred and four days. Chiro can go out to protect the city whenever he wants, but he has to stay in it. It's compulsory."

Sissy handed out a book and I flipped through it, eyes scanning the pages. Sure enough, there was a new law.

"How did you get the book? You wanted to ask Chiro to explore the city with you, and you've just arrived, so how did you know where to find the book? It's only found in major bookstores, and there are only three major bookstores in Shuggazoom. And they are not located in a very popular place. Not many people go there because they're very hard to find. Even people who know Shuggazoom very well can have difficulty finding the bookstores,"

Sissy stiffened and for a moment, she seemed to look nervous. Sissy bit her lip.

"I found it on a street," she explained.

I kept quiet. It looked brand new. Something was not right here. The pieces of the puzzle didn't add up. Satisfied that I didn't ask any more questions, Sissy continued,

"Oh, and I need you to tag along with us, to babysit Chiro while he's living in the mansion. If you don't mind, of course,"

"I don't mind, but I'll have to ask Chiro,"

"He really has no choice, you know,"

Sissy got up and yawned lazily.

"I'd better get going. I'll come to see you and Chiro tomorrow to show you the mansion, all right?"

I nodded and looked as she exited the robot. How did she know Chiro's parents? How did she know that Chiro owned the house? Can a foreigner possibly know where the mansion was located? If Sissy really did know, that meant that she was lying about being new. Any other normal foreigners would go to other attractions of Shuggazoom, not a mansion. This meant that she had more time to explore Shuggazoom. A foreigner couldn't possibly explore Shuggazoom in one day, right? And if she did find the mansion, how did she know that it belonged to Chiro's parents? There were so many questions and so little evidence.

"Antauri?"

I turned around and saw Gibson.

"It's our turn to patrol the city now,"

I nodded and walked to the black transport tube, but stepped on something. It was a photo, dropped by Sissy. There was a couple in it. Both were smiling. However, one part of the photo was torn out. There was another person beside the couple. I turned the photo around and saw the letter 'T'. The rest were torn out.

And somehow, the photo kept me awake all night on that day.


	4. A skeleton bone

Skater: HIII! Please review! I'm in a hurry so please ignore the spelling/punctuation errors.

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The next day...

"Time's up, let's go," Sissy said.

"What bout the kid's clothes?" Sprx asked.

"No worries, there's plenty at the mansion."

"So you're saying that Chiro doesn't hafta bring anything?" Otto said.

"Naa, the mansion has everything needed to live a normal life." Sissy replied, "Let's go already!"

I led Chiro to the exit of the robot, but I kept thinking about the girl in front of me. Was I making the right decision? After all, we had just met her.

"Antauri, are you sure about this?"

I turned around to find Gibson grabbing my arm. I paused for a moment, not knowing how to reply.

"Yes, I'm sure," I replied.

"And take these with you,"

The scientist handed me a small, short tube. It was shaped like a pill, just longer by 20 centimeters.

"It' acts like a oxygen tank and goggles (for swimming) . If you press this button here..."

I pressed the button. The goggles popped out.

"And if you put one end of this in your mouth, it allows you to breathe and see underwater. Oh, and there's another button for a flashlight," Gibson explained. "But the oxygen only lasts for 15 minutes, and I only had time to make one, so take this with you, just as a precaution."

I smiled at Gibson, grateful for his effort he put in to invent something like that.

"Thank you," I said.

Chiro pulled my hand and pointed to the exit. He dragged me away before Gibson could reply.

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"At last, we're here!" Sissy shouted in excitement, throwing her arms up in the air. The mansion was just beside the lake, and the waters of the lake were calm. However, the mansion was in a different part of Shuggazoom and it was surrounded by trees. Beside the lake, there was a swing and a sand pit. What bothered me was that the swing was brand new, but the mansion was abandoned years ago. Sissy opened the door and we entered it. Surprisingly, there was little dust and the furniture was not old at all. In fact, they looked quite new. Strange.

"So, here's your room, and here's Antauri's room." Sissy said, pointing to two brightly colored doors. The paint wasn't scraped and the color hadn't faded, like there was someone living in the mansion just a few days ago. I was deep in thought when...

"ANTAURI, LET'S GO INSIDE!" Chiro screamed enthusiastically.

We entered the room, and sure enough, everything was new and it was specifically designed for a kid. The soft toys in the right corner of the room were bought just a few days ago. The orange wallpaper and the action figures of the sun riders were a little dusted, though.

"Hey, Chiro, I have a present for you," Sissy said, taking out a wrapped box out of her bag. There was a ribbon at the top of the box, just like the one you see in cartoons. Excited, Chiro tore it open and inside, there were a toy and a book. The book was thin and was entitled 'The lonely teddy bear". There were a lot of pictures and the font of the words were huge. It was a book that was created just for kids at Chiro's age.

"This is the lonely teddy bear!" The boy squealed.

Sissy smiled at him.

"Well, I better get going, so explore this mansion to your heart's content."

"SISSY! Don't go! Stay with me and play!" Chiro cried, hugging her firmly.

"Now, now, sit down and be a good boy, ok? I'll come back tomorrow. Bye!"

She ran out of the mansion and left. I watched her from the window. She disappeared into the trees.

"Chiro, take a bath and go to bed. Dinner will be ready after your bath." I said.

"Ok!"

He ran off and I walked to the kitchen. Then I stopped. On the table was a freshly baked pizza, and a note was beside it.

_Here's another gift for Chiro. I hope he enjoys this!_

_-Sissy_

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After the meal, it started raining. A thunderstorm had come. Chiro looked out of the window and lightning flashed.

"AAAAH!"

Trembling, my son ran to me and hugged me tight, closing his eyes and clinging to me.

"What's wrong?"

"It's the skeletons! I saw the skeletons! They're gonna drown me!" he cried.

I looked out and saw nothing. I frowned. Was Chiro imagining things?

"Chiro, let's tuck you into bed and I'll read you a story, if that makes you feel better," I suggested, hoping to cheer him up.

"Ok,"

We walked up the stairs to Chiro's bedroom and he scrambled into bed, still freaked out at what he had seen. I ruffled his hair reassuringly and he handed the book to me.

"The lonely teddy bear. Once upon a time, there was a bear named Teddy, (Sorry, I'm no good at fairytales)"

(After the story telling)

Chiro was already sleeping when I finished reading, so I levitated out of the room, careful so as to not to wake him up.

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"DADDY!"

I woke up, startled. I rushed to Chiro's room, and once again, he was bawling his eyes out. That was when I noticed something on the wall. A bone and

_I'm coming for you... SOONER THAN YOU THINK._


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